Lewis Hamilton continued his strong start to the weekend in the United States by completing a clean sweep of Friday Practice sessions after topping the timesheets yet again in the afternoon.
The Briton would be the only man to break the 95-second mark with a 1m34.668s on the Ultrasoft tyres, a third of a second clear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel would be third but it was a tricky session for the German, who missed out on early running on the Soft compound tyre after sliding wide at Turn 19 and damaging his Pirelli rubber.
He would complete a qualifying simulation, but would then return to the pits and miss out on the long run in the final half an hour or so with some kind of technical problem on the front axle of his Ferrari.
Valtteri Bottas would continue to lag some way behind his teammate in fourth, with a six-tenths margin between the two Silver Arrows. Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen have work to do as they also lacked pace in fifth and sixth respectively.
In the midfield, Fernando Alonso, who failed to set a time in the morning due to a hydraulic leak in his McLaren, would lead the pack in seventh, a tenth-and-a-half clear of Felipe Massa’s Williams, as the Brazilian continued his strong pace on Friday.
Force India continue to lurk, however, with both cars again in the top 10 just 0.009s between Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon in 9th and 10th.
At Renault, the gap would be even smaller as Carlos Sainz continued to lead his new teammate Nico Hulkenberg, with the German suffering with mechanical issues early on.
The pair would be separated by just 0.005s in 11th and 12th and will certainly look to kick on with the Enstone outfit needing to get back on track after two pointless races.
Daniil Kvyat, in his first outing for Toro Rosso since the Singapore Grand Prix in Practice 2, made a convincing return as he beat Brendon Hartley by 1.2 seconds in 13th with the Kiwi four places behind in 17th as he continues to adapt to his new car.
In front of their home crowd, Haas had a difficult session with Kevin Magnussen the lead driver but only 14th fastest with Romain Grosjean bottom of the timesheets and a long way from where they hope to be.
Despite several good recent results, Stoffel Vandoorne’s struggles returned on a new circuit for the Belgian in 15th and a second down on the sister McLaren of Alonso up in seventh.
Lance Stroll saw his afternoon disrupted by an exhaust issue on his Williams as he slipped to 16th with the two Sauber’s of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson 18th and 19th.
